Pamela, Volume II eBook

He had it often upon his mind, he says, to write to
you on this very subject; but he had not the courage;
and besides, did not know how Mr. B. might
take it, if he should see that letter, as the case
had such delicate circumstances in it, that in blaming
himself, as he should very freely have done, he must,
by implication, have cast still greater blame upon
him.

Mr. Peters is certainly a very good man, and my favourite
for that reason; and I hope you, who could
so easily forgive the late wicked, but now penitent
Jewkes, will overlook with kindness a fault in a good
man, which proceeded more from pusillanimity and constitution,
than from want of principle: for once, talking
of it to my mamma, before me, he accused himself on
this score, to her, with tears in his eyes. She,
good lady, would have given you this protection at
Mr. Williams’s desire; but wanted the power
to do it.

So you see, my dear Mrs. B., how your virtue has shamed
every one into such a sense of what they ought to
have done, that good, bad, and indifferent, are seeking
to make excuses for past misbehaviour, and to promise
future amendment, like penitent subjects returning
to their duty to their conquering sovereign, after
some unworthy defection.

Happy, happy lady! May you ever be so! May
you always convert your enemies, invigorate the lukewarm,
and every day multiply your friends, wishes your
most affectionate,

POLLY DARNFORD.

P.S. How I rejoice in the joy of your honest
parents! God bless ’em! I am glad
Lady Davers is so wise. Every one I have named
desire their best respects. Write oftener, and
omit not the minutest thing: for every line of
yours carries instruction with it.

LETTER XXII

From Sir Simon Darnford to Mr. B.

SIR,

Little did I think I should ever have occasion to
make a formal complaint against a person very dear
to you, and who I believe deserves to be so; but don’t
let her be so proud and so vain of obliging and pleasing
you, as to make her not care how she affronts every
body else.

The person is no other than the wife of your bosom,
who has taken such liberties with me as ought not
to be taken, and sought to turn my own child against
me, and make a dutiful girl a rebel.

If people will set up for virtue, and all that, let
’em be uniformly virtuous, or I would not give
a farthing for their pretences.

Here I have been plagued with gouts, rheumatisms,
and nameless disorders, ever since you left us, which
have made me call for a little more attendance than
ordinary; and I had reason to think myself slighted,
where an indulgent father can least bear to be so,
that is, where he most loves; and that by young upstarts,
who are growing up to the enjoyment of those pleasures
which have run away from me, fleeting rascals as they
are! before I was willing to part with them. And
I rung and rung, and “Where’s Polly?”
(for I honour the slut with too much of my notice),
“Where’s Polly?” was all my cry,
to every one who came up to ask what I rung for.
And, at last, in burst the pert baggage, with an air
of assurance, as if she thought all must be well the
moment she appeared, with “Do you want me, papa?”